The murder ofAntonio Santiago in Brunswick, Georgia was a made-for-Headline-News grabber right from jump. An hysterical mother claims that she has been accosted by two black youths who demand money, and when she says she has none, they shoot her baby to death, and wound her in the leg before fleeing the scene. Cable news thereupon ensues and two suspects are arrested, 17-year old De'Marquise Elkins and an unnamed 15-year old. Cable news continues to ensue, and the brother of George Zimmerman, the man on trial for killing Trayvon Martin for the crime of carrying snack food through an inappropriate neighborhood, decides to weigh in so that we all know that the Georgia case, like that of his brother, is in no way About Race.

The whole thing seemed a little hinky. Two robbers kill a baby at close range, but they barely wound the woman they allegedly set out to rob? For those of us in Boston, our Charles Stuart bullshit detectors started to quiver just a bit. Stuart was the sociopath who, in 1989, shot his pregnant wife to death and blamed a random black man for the crime. The Boston police ran amuck in the African American neighborhoods of the city and actually came up with a suspect, a man named Willie Bennett, who was sitting in jail when Stuart's brother eventually gave up Stuart up, who thereupon jumped off the Tobin Bridge rather than face trial.

Firstcoastnews.com interviewed Ashley Glassey, the 21-year-old daughter of West, who told the station that the night of the shooting, West asked her how soon a life insurance policy would send her a check. "She changed her story she told me the baby was shot first and then she told me she was shot first," Glassey told the station.

According to the newspaper, Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said 36-year-old Karimah Elkins, the mother of 17-year-old De'Marquise Kareem Elkins, and 33-year-old Katrina Elkins were arrested on felony charges of making false statements to police. Both women reportedly posted the $1,104 bail, but only Karimah Elkins was released because Katrina is being held on a probation violation charge.

I wish our media culture made more sense, but I have a sinking feeling that this is nowhere near as weird as this case is going to get.